Effective Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008 Philippine Airlines (PAL), the Philippines flag carrier, resumes its regular daily service to Bangkok, following the reopening of Suvarnabhumi Airport to commercial flights after a weeklong shutdown.
PAL’s first turnaround flight to Suvarnabhumi after its reopening, PR 730/PR 731, utilizes a wide-body, 264-seater Airbus A340-300 aircraft in order to accommodate spillover passengers who had to defer their trips due to the eight-day closure of Thailand’s main gateway.
Thereafter, from Dec. 7 until further notice, the service reverts to the narrow-body, 156-seater Airbus A320 jet.
Previously-set regular flight times will be observed, with PR 730 departing Manila daily at 10:30 a.m. Arrival in Bangkok is at 1:00 p.m.
The return service, PR 731, departs Bangkok at 2:00 p.m. and lands in Manila at 6:25 p.m.
PAL canceled its flights to Bangkok on Nov. 26 when anti-government protesters overran Suvarnabhumi airport, forcing the airport management to close the facility out of concern for passengers’ safety.
When the standoff dragged on, PAL chairman Lucio C. Tan ordered the deployment of the flag carrier’s largest aircraft, the 433-seater Boeing 747-400, on a special flight to the secondary gateway of Chiang Mai on Dec. 1 to ferry home stranded passengers.
A second special flight on Dec. 2, utilizing a wide-body Airbus A330-300, brought home 302 stuck passengers.